Image: Platinum Dunes
About This Quiz
This 2009 thriller took a Jewish slant on the classic exorcism movie and disturbed audiences everywhere! Now, test your knowledge of this late-2000s horror movie with our quiz!
What is the name of the movie's heroine?
Anna
Casey
Casey was played by actress Odette Yustman (now Odette Annable). If she looked familiar, it might have been from "House, M.D." -- she scrubbed in on the show's final season.
Priscilla
Tamara
What is Casey doing when the movie opens?
fixing her car
dreaming
running
both #1 and #2
Casey has a dream in which she is running through a city park. In classic horror movie style, though, we don't realize it's a dream until things turn really weird.
Which of these things does Casey NOT see in her dream?
a boy with bright glowing blue eyes
a blue glove
a dog
a hypodermic needle
Casey finds a dropped glove, sees the boy with blue eyes wearing only one glove, and then sees a frightening dog where the boy was just standing a moment earlier. For good measure, she then goes off the trail and finds a fetus gestating in shallow dirt, like a seed. Okay, we're *sure* at this point we're in dream territory!
Advertisement
What does Casey's friend Romy say that dogs represent in dreams?
cats
a financial windfall approaching
messengers of the dead
Romy also explains that images of a baby can represent change. If the baby is unfamiliar to the dreamer, it means there's something "inside you, that's not ready to be born."
a suppressed desire to adopt a puppy
What is the little boy, Matty, doing upstairs?
reading comics
holding a mirror to his baby sister's face
Casey hears Matty whispering "Some people are doorways" over the baby monitor. When she goes upstairs, she sees him hovering over the crib with a hand mirror.
listening to a hockey game on radio
sneaking ice cream
What does Matty say just before he attacks Casey?
"Go away."
"Jumby wants to be born now."
The name of the movie is "The Unborn," so this shouldn't surprise anyone. Besides, Casey only just dreamed about finding an unborn baby in the park.
"You are also a doorway."
"You are not a doorway."
Advertisement
What does Casey find at the end of the Newtons's driveway?
a cockroach
a mandala in chalk
the dog from her dream
the blue glove from her dream
This item doesn't have much relevance to the story. It's mostly symbolic: Gloves come in pairs, like twins, and the glove is blue, which is a key color in the film.
What comes out of the egg that Casey cracks into a pan?
a cockroach
Well, we *think* it's a cockroach. Whatever it was, Casey made the right call scraping it directly into the sink.
a diamond ring
a little homunculus
just the insides of the egg
Where does Casey hear knocking coming from?
the attic
inside a kitchen cabinet
inside her medicine cabinet
Mirrors, like windows and eyes, are important in "The Unborn." That seems to be the reason Casey hears the knocking coming from her mirrored medicine cabinet and not elsewhere. (Well, that and the excuse to show her standing in her underwear in front of it).
the engine of her car
Advertisement
Who is Mark?
Casey's boyfriend
Mark, played by Cam Gigandet, is also the film's token skeptic. Romy believes in all kinds of superstitions.
Casey's deceased brother
Romy's boyfriend
a TA for one of Casey's classes
What happens to Casey's eye?
cataracts
nearsightedness
farsightedness
it starts to turn blue.
Romy notices this when they are in a locker room together. Blue eyes are an important motif in the film, for a reason that will be explained later.
What does Casey learn from the change to her eye?
Her family carries a genetic disorder.
She had a twin brother.
The eye doctor tells Casey that she has harmless "genetic mosaicism," meaning she picked up genetic material from a twin in the womb. She confronts her father, who tells her that her twin strangled on Casey's umbilical cord before birth.
She is going to go blind.
She is going to have to dye her hair blonde.
Advertisement
What was the nickname Casey's parents gave her brother?
Diddy
Number 2
Jumby
Of course, we've already guessed this, because of what Matty said in the babysitting scene: "Jumby wants to be born now."
Chief
How did Casey's mother die?
cancer
car wreck
She committed suicide.
Casey's mother killed herself in a mental hospital where she was being treated for depression. Of course, there was more than simple depression involved, as Casey is finding out.
She fell down a stairwell.
What is written on the bathroom stall where Casey throws up?
"Je suis vivant et tu es mort."
"Jumby wants to be born now."
"Genetic mosaicism"
"In the Kingdom of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man Is King."
Again, eye imagery! The writer has also drawn a picture of an eye, with an actual hole for the pupil. (That took initiative!)
Advertisement
Who is Sofi Kozma?
Casey's grandmother
Casey's mother learned who her birth mother was just before her suicide. Casey learns Sofi's name from a newspaper cliipping, but doesn't learn about the family connection until a little later.
a rabbi
a doctor who treated Casey's mother
a professor at Casey's school
What does Romy suggest Casey do to ward off evil spirits?
hang garlic over the door
wear a red thread around her wrist
put a mezuzah over the door
put scissors under her pillow with the two points open
Romy credits this piece of advice as coming from her grandmother. Oh good: For a minute we thought it was in Scientific American.
What was the name of Sofi's twin brother?
Barto
Barto died in Auschwitz as the result of experiments the Nazis were conducting on twins. Sadly (this probably isn't news to you), the Third Reich actually was preoccupied with genetics and did experiments on Jewish prisoners.
Dov
Michael
Yitzhak
Advertisement
What were the Nazis trying to do to Barto?
make him immune to illness
give him blue eyes
It goes without saying that the blue-eyes project fits in with the Nazis' obsession with Aryan bloodlines and features -- chiefly, blond hair and blue eyes.
give him super strength
kill and revive him
What specifically does Sofi say possessed her brother?
a dybbuk
A dybbuk is a soul that has been barred from heaven and wanders the earth looking for a body to possess. A golem is also from Jewish tradition, but this is a man made from clay that is given life, in order to serve or protect its creator.
a golem
a ghost
a shade
Who killed Barto when he was possessed by the dybbuk?
Barto himself
Sofi
It was apparent from her first appearance that Casey's grandmother had steel in her spine. This just proves it.
Barto and Sofi's father
an unidentified Nazi
Advertisement
What is the name of the rabbi whom Casey consults?
Abrams
Moyers
Ruthstein
Sendak
Sendak is skeptical of Casey's claim of being haunted by a dybbuk. But he does agree to translate the book for her, as she tells him her life may depend on it.
Who played Rabbi Sendak?
F. Murray Abraham
Liam Neeson
Gary Oldman
Oldman is a chameleon of an actor. Well-known for showy roles in "True Romance," "The Professional" and "Bram Stoker's Dracula," he's hard to recognize here as a mild-mannered religious man.
Adam Sandler
In what language is the Book of Mirrors written?
Arabic
Hebrew
"The Unborn" didn't get high marks from critics for its originality, but a Jewish exorcism movie does make a nice break from all the Catholic ones, with Latin inscriptions and Roman-collared priests.
Latin
Russian
Advertisement
What does Sofi say is a sign of the dybbuk being near?
a change in temperature
dogs howling
electrical interference on the TV or radio
wind chimes stirring
Casey takes her grandmother's advice and hangs wind chimes around the house. Seems like it could get confusing on a windy day, though.
What other phenomenon occurs when the spirit is near?
Distant thunder is heard.
A baby is heard crying.
The power goes out.
This isn't the most original plot point ever for a horror movie. Still, it requires characters to stumble around in the dark, and that's probably the point.
Animals become aggressive.
What does Sendak see in the sanctuary of his synagogue?
a dog with an upside-down head
Sendak has already seen pictures of animals with upside-down heads in the Book of Mirrors. He tells the dog/demon to "Get out of this place" and it does.
Barto/the dybbuk
Casey's mother Janet
Casey's grandmother Sofi
Advertisement
What message does Matty give to Romy?
"He doesn't want you to help her."
This might remind you of the little boy in "The Ring" saying "You weren't supposed to help her!" At any rate, Romy isn't impressed. Her response in unprintable here, but funny.
"Jumby wants to be born now."
"Your grandmother is in hell."
"In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."
What happened just before Matty gave the message to Romy?
He had a bad dream.
The wind chimes on a nearby porch jangled.
He saw the demon dog.
Romy hit him with her car.
Remarkably, there's not a scratch on Matty afterward. This, combined with the creepy message, leads Romy to say, "There's something seriously wrong with that kid." We've *been* knowing that, Romy!
Who played the Episcopalian minister, Arthur?
Idris Elba
Yes, Idris Elba, a man short-listed to play James Bond, had a small role in "The Unborn." We haven't been this surprised since Faye Dunaway turned up in "The Bye Bye Man."
Bradley Cooper
Owen Wilson
K. Todd Freeman
Advertisement
Why, according to Arthur, is an Episcopal priest going to be useful in a Jewish exorcism?
Demons predate organized religion.
Episcopalians have a very strong tradition of exorcism.
Exorcism rites have many similarities across faiths.
both #1 and #3
Arthur tells Casey that demons are older than religion, and probably older than mankind. This is why most faiths have similar exorcism rites, and demons aren't vulnerable to just one kind.
Where does the group decide to perform the exorcism?
Casey's home
the abandoned asylum where Casey's mother died
They have to do the exorcism there because, Sendak says, they need a location that is "particularly negative" for Casey. (This seems like a thinly-veiled excuse to get the characters into the most disturbing location possible -- but, okay).
the Newtons's driveway
the park that was in Casey's first dream
Which of the following characters survives the movie?
Rabbi Sendak
The rabbi lives to finish the exorcism, which *seems* to be successful. The dybbuk succeeds in killing Casey's grandmother, best friend and boyfriend, though -- a pretty high toll.
Romy
Mark
Sofi
Advertisement
What news does Casey get at the end of the film?
Romy is still alive.
Mark is still alive.
She's pregnant.
This is the answer to the question of why the dybbuk targeted Casey at the time that it did. Was the exorcism successful? Are Casey's babies at risk? The movie leaves these questions open.
She was adopted.
You Got:
/35
Platinum Dunes